A group of people sitting in front of laptops, talking about magic keys and web of trust. What would you like to learn? To unlearn? How to encrypt your email? How to hide within the web? The skinny woman on the brown sofa is one of the four cryptoangels present, that’s how she calls the crypto-nerds, including herself. We start by downloading appropriate apps, making up safe passwords, exchanging email addresses, keys and fingerprints. I write my first encrypted email ever.

Setting 2

I’m filming at a computer course, a course held by seniors for seniors. The annotation that the filmed footage won’t be used for the web doesn’t ring any bells with the participants. Not yet aware of its dimensions. Today they’re just about to learn how to install an email account. An old lady at the front explains in a patient tone how to navigate within the world wide web. While the former translator is flabbergasted by the possibilities of google translation another elderly lady to my left struggles with her coordinative skills, the cursor hardly under control, a seemingly endless fight against the pad. Nevertheless the google start page pops up, but the final click proves to be a coordinative impossibility; a slow movement accompanied with an admirable will for it to finally happen. It’s her first time ever on a computer.

My time in Berlin was aligned with collaborative projects such as my Wikipedia writing project Who writes his_tory?, a curatorial project called Magic Circle and the recording and vinyl production of our two bands Oppressed by Privilege / Privileged by Oppression. In addition to the running projects, I found myself looking at self organised digital communities where peer to peer knowledge and help is shared, based on voluntary work. I visited several cryptoparties, filmed at computer courses for elderly people and visited the Wikipedia female editor’s regular table.

For the Salon Daniela Brugger gathers those different experiences by organising a private cryptoparty held at Sozialwerke Berlin, a self organised citizen’s initiative with the aim to support each others talents: „Seniors help seniors“, a world which is usually only accessible for people over 65. Crypotparties on the other hand are open to all ages, but have strict rules within their code of conduct what’s allowed and what’s not. For example it’s a common agreement to neither film, record or take any pictures, nor to enroll for a party.